


Shameless Valley

by gazse



Category: Shameless (US), Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), And Watch A Lot Of Shameless, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Good Parent Mickey Milkovich, I Play A Lot Of Stardew Valley, Ian Needs To Get It Together, M/M, Mickey Is A Sad Boy, new boy in town, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:27:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26114923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gazse/pseuds/gazse
Summary: A story with the characters from Shameless in the setting of Stardew Valley. You don't have to know anything about Stardew Valley to understand, and the first chapter is a reference guide if there is any confusion.Mickey is a blacksmith, that much is true. He is also a father (when Svetlana lets him see his son), a big brother (although Mandy seems to be getting along well without him), and he is desperately lonely (except when Lip comes over for sex).Then a new farmer comes to town, and well, not everything runs smoothly once they meet.
Relationships: Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Lip Gallagher/Karen Jackson, Lip Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Mandy Milkovich/Alex (Stardew Valley), Mickey Milkovich & Svetlana Milkovich, Mickey Milkovich & Yevgeny MIlkovich
Comments: 7
Kudos: 44





	1. Reference Guide

Hi! 

This is my Shameless/ Stardew Valley crossover that no one asked for. I've been writing it on and off for a while, but now I'm fully back into playing the game, I'm right back into writing this. 

I wanted to give a brief overview of the game Stardew Valley for anyone who hasn't played it, but I'd like to think you don't need any knowledge to understand what's happening in my story. 

You play as a customizable character, working their dead-end job, not enjoying life at all. Then you find out that your grandfather has died, and he has left his farm to you in his will. With no farming knowledge, you move out of the city to Stardew Valley, where you slowly learn how to farm, look after livestock, mine for ores and gems, and fish. The main point of contention is a small town general store versus inherently evil big business stores that can offer big discounts and want to drive the small business to close. You also get to know your neighbours, and eventually you can marry one of them, regardless of gender. Basically, you can live your dream life. The setting to me seems to be late 90s, early 2000s; people have land-line phones, a few people use the internet and computers, but they mostly correspond through letters. 

This is the surface level of the game, there is a lot more deeper than this in terms of quests, your neighbour's stories, and some hidden magic, but I won't be going into that in my narrative. 

Some of the characters will be replaced with Shameless characters, those who aren't will basically only be mentioned to move the plot along, and will not have a speaking role. 

Ian is the farmer who has inherited the farm from Grandma Gallagher, he lived with Monica in the city while Frank and the rest of the kids moved to Stardew Valley when they were young, think season 1 of Shameless. 

Mickey replaces Clint the blacksmith. Ian would need to come to Mickey to get his tools upgraded. In the game you make a lot of things yourself with materials you collect, such as sprinklers and furnaces, but for the sake of a bit of realism, I'm making it that Mickey does that stuff as well. 

The Gallagher's replace Pierre the shop owner and his family. Fi owns the store and the rest of the family is there to help out, Carl is often off doing his ROTC thing, while Debbie has Frannie, and Liam is there too. 

The Milkovich's replace Penny and Pam in their trailer by the river. Terry and Iggy are off in jail and Mandy works in the Jojamart, (the fantasy version of another cheap volume store that is inherently evil), just working to have money to live. She is the only one still living in the trailer. 

Lip is around, he splits his time between helping Fi in the store and up in the mountain, working with a scientist and his daughter (Demetrius and Maru) in their lab. Because he's smart. 

Karen and Sheila replace Jas and Marnie on their ranch. Sheila still struggles with her agoraphobia and OCD, making it hard to leave the house sometimes. Karen splits her time between the city and helping Sheila on the ranch. Frank is also staying there at this point, mooching off Sheila and taking his backdoor punishment.

Kev and Vee replace Gus at the bar, that wasn't too much of a stretch. Svetlana and Yevgeny live there as well as their twins. 

Caleb is there mostly for the drama, he replaces Harvey as the town doctor, mostly because I wasn't sure where else to put him. 

Probably the last thing I want to mention is that there will be mentions of mysterious things happening around the town, in the game this is due to the farmer completing quests, and then as a reward, broken down things magically get fixed up which helps make the game a bit easier. The townsfolk in the game don't seem to be aware of the magic that happens around them, so, as this story mostly focuses on Mickey, I haven't included much about it, apart from that it happens.


	2. The Sexy New Farmer Comes To Town

The whole town was buzzing, you could feel it in the air as you stepped outside; the people looked more alive than they had in ages. Even Mickey noticed, he doesn’t go across the river to where most of the townsfolk lived much, but it was definitely noticeable when he went to Jojamart to buy, (mostly buy, only a little bit of steal) his groceries, he tried to ask Mandy but she shooed him away after ‘dropping’ two cartons of cigarettes in his bag.

He figured he’d just wait and see, it was like the kind of excitement that usually happened in the days before a festival was set up. He usually didn't have much input into these things, unless something broke and they needed a new part to fix it; occasionally he might attend one, if only for the free food, but having Svetlana glare at him from across the town centre as Yevgeny tries to struggle out of her grasp to go to his dad made it too painful to stay. He was only allowed to see his son when she allowed it, even accidentally passing them in the street was seen as an attack on her authority, and most of the town agreed, especially her wife and her wife’s husband, or whatever that situation is.

It was midday on a Sunday and he was lounging around on a barrel next to his shop smoking. He used to sit on the much more comfortable bench that was in front of him near the ice cream stall that Kev ran during the summer, but the Librarian told him to move, said he was a ‘bad influence’ for the kids, which is bullshit, but everyone knew he was being bribed with premium grass to let Kev sell.

He was taking a break from the hot forge inside his shitty house when he saw a flash of red running down towards the beach; he presumed it was the younger Gallagher girl, and even though the figure was way too tall and built to be her, he dismissed it almost immediately.

Later on that night, Mandy came around and they huddled in his small kitchen to try and cook something with the almost expired meat she brought from work.

“Have you met him yet?” She asked, cutting up the vegetables for a salad as he watched the meat sizzle on the stove.

“Met who?” He didn’t really care who. During the warmer seasons there were people coming and going like this was a fucking tourist destination instead of a quiet ass little town. Mandy seemed to fall in love a few times a year, and then get sad when they left to return to their normal lives.

“Ian, dumbass.”

“You're a dumbass,” He mumbled back at her.

She threw a piece of carrot she was chopping at his head, laughing when it struck and dropped onto his pan. He swore at her as he tried to get it out without burning himself.

“Middle Gallagher. Apparently he went off to join ROTC and live a life outside of this shit hole. But remember how their grandma died last year?” Mickey shrugged, barely remembering a few months ago, let alone a year. “Well anyway, she used to run that old farm where we used to play as kids. Used to grow all types of weed, and had a meth lab out the back until it blew up and killed someone, and someone ratted her out to the feds. Maybe that was why we liked to play there so much.” She laughed.

“You liked to play there you fucking addict, I only came with because Terry didn’t want you tripping and falling on some guy’s cock before he could sell you out.”

“Turns out he had to worry about you more than me,” she said lightly, laughing when he stuck his middle finger up at her.

“Anyway, she was dying, so they let her out to see her family. So all the Gallaghers hang around her deathbed, hoping that she had a fortune in drug money put away that she would give to them, and she starts asking, ‘where’s the redhead?’ and Debbie gets all excited and is like, ‘here! I’m here,’ and the old bitch is like, ‘not you idiot! The boy redhead!’ And it turns out that he couldn’t get away from his dead end job to come see Grammie, but she’s like; ‘that kid knows what’s important, yourself, and doing things for yourself, not mooching off other people like his father has’. Then she rewrites the will to leave her farm to him, and makes it airtight so nobody can fight it even if they could afford the lawyers!’ She cackles.

“Fuck, you’re the biggest gossip.” Mickey groans, “don’t you have more interesting things to tell me? Who is Karen fucking now? How do you even know all this shit?”

“I’ll tell you about Karen later.” Mandy huffs, “and Lip told me,” She ignores her brother rolling his eyes, “he also told me that Ian is gay, but only after I started flirting with him when they rocked up on my lunch break.”

“He’s a dick,” Mickey grunts as he takes the meat off the stove to dump equal portions on both plates. “And why the fuck do I care if he’s gay?” He starts grabbing handfuls of the salad she cut and adding them to their meals.

When he was done, Mandy grabbed her plate and a beer for each of them, and they headed to the couch to eat. 

“Because fuck face, it’s been forever since you’ve been laid, and getting it occasionally from Lip doesn’t count, especially now.” She hands him a bottle.

Micky twists the top and takes a mouthful, “sex is sex, so why the fuck doesn’t he count?”

“Because Karen is fucking him again, and that means he’ll be hung up on her for at least 6 months after she moves on.”

Mickey’s head fell back against the headrest of the couch with the ‘thud’, “ah fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, please just ignore that crappy reasoning I gave as to why Ian inherited the farm when none of the others did. Cool. Thanks.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, chapters will get longer as the story goes on.


	3. Any Hunky Gay Redheads Around Here? Asking For A Friend

Despite Mandy’s enthusiasm, Mickey still hadn’t met this ‘Ian’ by the end of spring. 

At first he had quietly wanted to meet him; having another gay dude in town would definitely be cool, especially since the only other one was Caleb, the town doctor, who looked at him like he was the scum of the earth; the one and only time they talked when he was digging a bullet out of Mickey’s thigh; since then he has taken care of any other injury himself, or with Mandy’s help, and that’s been working just fine, even if his ass aches sometimes in the cold from the shotgun fragments still in there.

As the weeks went on and no ‘hunky gay redhead’, as Mandy likes to call him, came calling to meet him, he hoped that he would at least come around soon for some tool upgrades; he can’t imagine the tools sitting around the property, untouched for decades, would be in the best condition. Fuck knows he needed the work, at the moment his main customer was the builder who lives up in the mountain, and she isn't getting much work either apparently.

Spring turned into summer and Mickey had all but forgotten about the new guy in town; he obviously had everything under control at his farm, he might’ve even had tools to bring with him, and there was not much more he could offer the guy, at least until he wanted an extension, or something built, and even then it would be the builder, Robin, coming over about it.

So when Mickey wandered down to the beach one morning to hopefully catch something good for dinner, running into this guy was the last thing he thought he’d do.

Stepping onto the sand, he bent down to take his boots off to feel it between his toes, only to look up when a Greek god ran up to him, and almost into him.

“Whoa! Hey! Sorry man, I was in my zone. Nobody is usually here at this time of the morning, except the fisherman, but he lives here.” The guy panted, but Mickey hardly listened, too busy staring at the sweat soaked shirt that clung to him, outlining his muscles perfectly, and the way his freckles stood out on his pale face.

Catching him staring, the guy laughed and ran a hand through his red red red hair, which was a little longer than a buzz cut, “ha, yeah, I’m pretty gross right now, but now is the coolest time of the day to go for a run, except at midnight maybe, but I’m not that crazy that I’d go running at midnight.” He paused as if he was thinking, “well, maybe I am. Anyway I’m Ian,” and he stuck out his hand to shake.

Mickey stared at the sweaty palm for a moment, and the guy, Ian, seemed to realise and took it back to hurriedly wipe it on the side of his shorts, before offering it again.

This time Mickey took it, “uh-“ his voice croaked, and he cleared his throat as his cheeks heated, “I’m Mickey. I’m the blacksmith in town, so if, uh-, if your tools are shit, I can fix ‘em, or make better ones.”

Ian’s eyes seemed to light up, and he let go of his hand, “the blacksmith! The mayor told me that you were here somewhere, but it’s hard work setting up the farm so I haven’t had time to come and meet you! I’m pretty lucky that I have all my brothers and sisters all here to help out when they can.” He gave a big sigh, “Lip has been the most help, we’re only a year apart and we used to be best friends, I really missed him.”

Mickey laughed a but awkwardly and tucked his hair behind his ears, it was longer than it used to be, maybe as a ‘fuck you’ to Terry for calling him a girl, and tried to make small talk. “You, uh, ever been to Stardew Valley before?”

Ian smiled at him, and fucking hell, he was gorgeous. “Yeah, a few times. When Fi had enough of the city and brought everyone out here, I stayed with our mum for a while. I basically just wanted to be able to finish high school so I could get into the ROTC. I think I’ve only ever come for some of the festivals, so we probably saw each other in the crowd.”

Mickey nodded as if in agreement, but he knew that there was very little possibility that he was actually ever at those festivals Ian attended.

“Anyway,” Ian continued, “my heart rate is going down and that means I have to get going again. It was great to meet you, Mickey the blacksmith, I’ll bring my tool around later and we’ll see what you can do with it!” With a wink, Ian set off, with Mickey waving like an idiot behind him.

It was half an hour later when Mickey was good and comfortable in his camping chair on the pier, cooler next to him full of beer and snacks and ready to be filled with a fish at a moment’s notice when it suddenly hit him, making him sit up straighter. Had Ian been flirting with him?

He wanted to see what he could do with his tool. Tool. Not tools, not multiple things, just one. And god, that wink at the end, that was definitely a flirty move, it was a classic. Had Ian noticed him staring at him? God that’s embarrassing, he can’t even talk to a hot guy without drooling all over him. But Ian seemed to be fine with it, unless he is a naturally flirty sort’ve guy, like Lip, or like Karen.

Mickey lent forward and let his hair fall around his face to cover his burning hot cheeks, then said ‘fuck it’ and fished a beer out and popping it open, and taking a large swallow; it felt wrong to be drinking in the morning, but fuck it, he needed it right now.

He took another gulp and settled back into his chair, taking a deep breath and letting it out. He decided there wasn’t much to be done about it, Ian hadn’t left him any time to respond to what he said, so Mickey would just have to pay more attention next time to see what happens.

By midday he was able to catch a decent sized tuna, so he decided to call it a day before he got too sunburned, curse his pale skin. As he was walking back home he passed Lip and Karen who barely gave him a wave and they came onto the beach and ran over to the bird statue and into the bush behind it, not even pretending that they weren’t doing what they were doing.

He just shook his head at them, adjusted everything in order to carry it more comfortably, and made his way back home, wondering if Mandy was going to join him tonight or if she was going to hang at that jock’s house and have sex with him while his grandparents sleep.

Crossing the bridge into town, he looked up to the town centre and saw Ian talking with Caleb, and felt his heart sink; he could see the way Caleb angled his hips towards Ian, and how they stood so close to each other that their chat would be full of flirting and winks, and then Caleb coyly ran his fingers up and down Ian’s arm for a moment, and that was about all Mickey could take.

Looking away, Mickey picked up his pace to his shop, glad he had the day off so that he could ignore the world for a while.

He didn’t know why he thought Ian would be interested in him when there was someone like Caleb around, even Mickey could admit that despite the shitty attitude, he was pretty hot. Mickey, on the other hand, had been described as ‘the dirtiest white boy in town’ by Vee, a description that the whole town had adopted, and his job certainly didn’t help the situation.

But Ian didn’t seem to have that opinion when they spoke, and still he is second best to another guy, hell, there's only three gays in town so that still meant he was last.

He got home and locked the door behind him; fuck Mandy for tonight, she’ll just have to actually spend the night at that guy’s house for once. Dumping his stuff in the kitchen, he immediately set about scaling the fish he caught, he was self-taught, so he made a mess of it, and his frustration was certainly not helping, but it got the job done, even if the result was far too ugly to ever be served in an actual restaurant. ‘Kinda like me,’ Mickey thought bitterly as he stored most of the fish in the freezer and put one piece away for later.

Left with nothing else to do, he grabbed another beer from the fridge, shit, he’d have to make a stop at Jojamart sometime soon for more, and settled in front of the TV, leaving it on a repeat of The Queen of the Sauce. Taking another gulp, that was where he spent the rest of the afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not projecting. YOU'RE projecting


	4. Scary 10 Year Olds

A week later on a stormy day he was working on the ranch owner’s, Sheila, tools. She decided it was time for a complete overhaul of everything from her pitchfork, to her shears, even to her shovel and axe, but she still struggled leaving the house on bad days, so she sent Karen over, who stared with an all knowing stare before handing over the money for the job and leaving without a word.

Mickey felt a shiver go down his spine; the girl was unnerving with her blank stare.

In the other room he could hear the TV going with some cartoons on. Svetlana had let Yevgeny spend the night, which only happens when she wants a night of mega sex with Kev and Vee. He usually loved to spend time with his son, but he wanted to actually do things with him, but now he had to work, and it will definitely take a while, days actually.

He sighed and ran a hand through his long hair, looking around for an elastic to tie it back. He walked out the back while holding his hair together in a fist. Yev took one look at him and picked up the tie sitting on the table beside him, handing it to him. Nodding in thanks he made quick work of it, looking at his son, and wondering.

“Yev…”

“Yeah dad?” His son had gone back to watching TV.

“Do you wanna help me work today?” he asked lightly, knowing that a 10 year old might think he was too cool to hang out with his dad.

Yev instantly sat up straighter, looking at his dad, “I thought it was too dangerous for a kid,” he mimics what he has heard from both his mother and his father numerous times.

“It really is, but if you listen and follow everything I say, wear the stuff I give you, and don’t tell your mother, then I think you’re mature enough.”

Yevgeny was all too eager, and together they got ready to work the forge.

It was a gruelling few hours later when Yevgeny finally called it quits. Mickey wouldn’t let him work on Sheila’s stuff, but he gave him some copper to hammer away at to his heart’s content, working muscles that had never been worked before and leaving the poor boy so tired he could barely lift his arms to eat his sandwich for lunch. After eating, he decided that he didn’t want to help anymore, but he wanted to watch, sitting at the counter with a notebook in front of him, doing some super-secret stuff that Mickey wasn’t allowed to look at.

Mickey was secretly enjoying being admired by his son, and put extra effort into his work. Sheila’s shovel was so old that it was not far from breaking, so he was making her a new one, but he knew she could be really OCD about having things replaced when she wasn’t expecting it, so he’d ask Karen next time he saw her how she’d feel about it.

He was so focused on his work that he didn’t hear the door open, Yevgeny did, but chose to stare at the intruder instead of acknowledging him, since his eyes skipped over the boy and went straight to Mickey.

“Holy shit man, your arms look like they were fucking sculpted.” Ian exclaimed over the loud banging.

Mickey looked up, startled, “what?” 

“Man, and I was worried that I might have too much stamina for you, but it looks like you’ll keep up fine…” Ian breathed as he got closer, stalking more like it.

Mickey was shocked. What the fuck? This was way past the gentle flirting he experienced at the beach! Mickey felt his son's eyes on his as his face went red in embarrassment.

“What the hell man? Don’t say that shit in front of my son!” Gesturing at Yevgeny with his hammer, who was sitting and watching them quietly, but with a frown on his face.

“What?” Ian spun his head around to see the boy, who glared at him, and he turned back to Mickey with wide eyes, “son? But I thought…” he mumbled, “shit, I’m sorry Mick, I thought, ah-“

“You thought what?” Micky huffed impatiently.

Ian didn’t have time to respond. “Unless you have a job for us, you need to leave as you are holding up work. Leave your tools and smelted bars here on the counter; the current wait time is at least 5 days.” Yevgeny put on his stern voice; he had met the new farmer previously and didn’t mind him at the time, but he made his dad uncomfortable and he was holding up work, which was inexcusable.

“Ah- yeah, I’ll just…” Ian stuttered, leaving his axe and 5 copper ingots on the counter, before turning to leave.

“Payment is required up front,” Yevgeny asserts.

Somehow going even redder, Ian slams the money down and practically bolts out the door. Yevgeny was counting the money before the door even shut itself, and Mickey stared at his son in awe.

“You are going to be a scary ass businessman one day,” he states, and his son just looks up to give him an affirming nod before going back to his job.

Hours later, Svetlana came to pick Yevgeny up for dinner and drop off some food for him because she still firmly believes that he is the same person he was ten years ago that couldn’t use a stove unsupervised. She nodded in approval as the sleepy boy told his mother what happened.

“Yes, ex-husband needs strong person to work his business. He is good at metal, shit at people.” She said as they walked through the door.

That was probably the nicest thing she had ever said about him, so he felt like he was on a strange sort of high as he put the meal she brought for him in the microwave for dinner. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and let the humming of the microwave become white noise to his thoughts, being brought back by the ‘ding’ a few minutes later.

Taking his meal to the counter up the front, he took the opportunity to do a little bit of paperwork now that he didn’t have a ten year old distraction running around.

He’d barely finished filling out an invoice for Sheila when the door burst open and a laughing Lip strolled in, wearing a top that was unbuttoned low enough to see the hickies that Karen left him. His laugh was loud and obnoxious, so Mickey just propped his chin up with his hand and waited for him to stop and explain why he was here.

It took at least another minute of Lip laughing so much he was almost crying before he started to settle down.

“Man, Ian just told me the whole thing! He was so excited after meeting you the other day ‘cause he thought he’d found some sort of gay paradise with not one but two dudes, maybe three, I can’t tell with that Eliot guy.” He laughs again, “and then he finds out about your kid and he is devastated because he thought his gaydar was broken.” He walks around as he tells this, before sitting on the stool on the other side of the counter and mirrors Mickey’s position. “Your kid is the best.”

“Yes he is,” Mickey agrees.

“Must get it from his mother.”

“Yes he does,” Lip raises an eyebrow, “if he got it from me then there would’ve been a lot more swearing involved.”

Lip nods in agreement, reaching over to grab a piece of potato from his dinner. Mickey let him, this was how they worked, although usually this was their kind of flirting and within an hour they’d end up in bed, but with Karen around at the moment, that conclusion seemed doubtful.

“Anyway,” Lip continued after finishing his stolen snack, “he would probably avoid you forever if it wasn’t for the fact that you have his axe. What can I say to him to avoid him trying to make me or anyone else get it instead?”

Mickey leaned back in his chair, “the person who dropped it off has to be the one to pick it up.” He said like it was obvious, “otherwise any asshole could walk in and say they were picking it up for him, and then steal it.”

“Makes sense.”

“I don’t take permission slips either.”

“Also makes sense. I bet you can’t wait to see his face again.”

Mickey tapped his chin and pretended to think, “well, I don’t actually have to be here. I could just let Yevgeny be the one to hand it over.”

Lip laughed, “that’s evil.”

“It would be awesome to see,” Mickey grinned, but then he sighed, “Unfortunately that would probably scare him off forever, and I need the business.”

Lip nodded in agreement and got up to help himself to a beer from the fridge, so Mickey took the opportunity to take a few big bites of his dinner so there was less there to be stolen. He quietly got back to work as he heard Lip rummage through his fridge and he knew immediately that his leftover chicken would be gone in minutes; this was confirmed when Lip wandered back out with it and settled back into his stool, munching away and watching him work.

When Mickey finally dropped the pen and rubbed his neck a few minutes later. Finished eating, Lip spoke. “I didn’t know you could write Mick.”

Mickey glared at him, “the old librarian used to teach the kids who couldn’t get to the city.”

“So, like, you and Mandy then.”

“And Iggy, before he got busted doing one of dad’s drug runs.”

Lip ‘hmmed’, “I remember reading about that. It was just before Fi dragged us all out here, I tried to use it as a reason why we shouldn’t move, but she pointed out that it was way worse in the city.”

“I’ve never been to the city, Terry thought I was a fuck up and didn’t want me messing up a run, so he never let me come.”

Lip leaned forward, “I’ve heard rumours.” He purrs, and continues when Mickey raises his eyebrow, “I’ve heard that his bus didn’t break from disrepair, that it was sabotage.”

Mickey leaned forward as well, “you’d think that if someone would do that, that they would aim to have it breakdown while Terry was as far away from town as he could be and pray he wouldn’t come back.”

“Sure, but maybe that person was young and didn’t have the skills to do it, maybe they tried their best to do that to protect their family.”

Mickey leaned back and pretended to focus on his meal. “Well, I doubt we’ll ever know, it’s not like anyone is going to confess to Terry that they did it. He’d find a way to get them even behind bars.”

Lip still stared at him, “true.”

They sat in silence for a little bit, drinking their beers and not quite meeting each other’s eyes. They had known each other since Lip moved to town while Mickey was still living in his family’s trailer by the river. They became friends pretty quickly being pretty much the only two their age in town, Karen was at boarding school and typically wouldn’t be around for most of the year, so when Lip had free time, he would hang with him and Mandy. He was one of the first, second to Mandy, that Mickey haltingly confessed to being gay to.

They started fooling around pretty soon after that; Mickey wanted the experience and Lip just plain wanted the sex, as long as he was on top, which suited both of them. Despite their promise to keep it casual, Mickey had always had a slight crush on Lip, he came from a shitty family situation just like him, but he was a genius, and he was going to make something of himself. 

Working with the scientist husband of Robin, he spent most of his days in the lab up the mountain, then he would come down to work in the shop for Fi; he only had his nights to play, and he made use of them. Whenever his and Karen’s relationship was in the ‘on’ part of their on and off, Mickey couldn’t help but feel jealous; the fact that he was here now either meant that Karen was busy, or they had moved to the ‘off’ part much quicker than usual this time.

When the silence became overbearing, Mickey finally met his eyes. “So what do we do now, man?”

Lip raised an eyebrow, “well, we could do what we normally do?”

Mickey rolled his eyes, “yeah, we could, but when you’re with Karen you can’t get it up for any other ass but hers.”

“Fuck you man,” Lip said without much force, “apparently she’s a sex addict, and she’s been going to these meetings with some douche named ‘Chody’. What the hell kind of name is that?”

“Oh man, ‘Chody?” Mickey laughed, “I met that dick! Looks like a porn star, has a hog but has no idea how to look after it. He came over asking for help with it last week, I thought he was just some tourist.”

Lip scowled, “yeah that’s him. They have to be fucking right? Even I can admit that he is way too hot for her to resist.”

Mickey grinned at him, “yeah man, I tried to get into his pants as well, but he is so fucking dumb, I doubt he even knew it.”

Lip groaned, “not you too!”

“Hey, even I need sex more often than whenever you’re not busy being her little bitch.” Mickey shrugged.

“We haven’t done more than make out since she came back from her internship in the city, it’s so frustrating!” He looks at Mickey with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh, being the second choice makes me so horny,” Mickey drawls sarcastically, but still gets up. “Lock the front door fuck face, and you’re wearing a condom.”

Lip grinned and got up to do just that, then jogged after his fuck buddy to the bedroom where they both shed their clothes in a hurried manner. It was a well-practiced dance by now, so neither attempted to put any effort into making it more sensual.

Mickey finished before Lip and helped him to pull his shirt off, not even bothering with the buttons, and they met for a wet, hot, and messy kiss, tongues immediately out to duel. Mickey pushes Lip back roughly to where he knows his bed is, and he climbs on the body as he bounces on the mattress, continuing to make out and feeling Lip’s hands move to cup his ass and squeeze it perfectly. Still focused on the meeting of their mouths, Mickey fumbled blindly with the drawer next to Lip’s head trying to find the lube and condoms from feel alone and their hurried actions were not helping at all. Eventually he did find them, however, and shoved the condom into Lip’s hand while lubed up his fingers and got to work opening himself up. They pulled apart eventually and looked at each other, Lip raised his eyebrow and Mickey nodded, letting Lip’s hands guide him onto his dick, smoothly, they were well practiced at this.

Lip waited as Mickey adjusted at the intrusion, watched him squirm on his lap until he stopped wincing and started panting, and then he thrust up experimentally and saw the other man’s jaw drop open in a moan. That set their pace for the rest of it, after a few thrusts, Mickey took control and used his thighs to bounce him up and down, making the cock inside his hit the sweet spot every time, until he knew he was getting close and felt Lip grab his hips desperately, trying to join in with the rhythm he had set.

At the climax, Mickey bent over to bury his face into Lip’s neck, and Lip brought his arms around Mickey’s back; this was Mickey’s favourite part, and Lip knew it and indulged him. It was nice lying here where he could pretend he was with a long term partner who loved him; he doubted he’d find such a person here in Stardew Valley, pickings were slim, and it was rapidly looking like he’d have to settle for the love of his son and his sister, with whatever Lip would throw his way.

He knew Lip has given way too much of himself away to Karen for him to ever be fully satisfied with anyone other than her, and Mickey did hope for both of their sake that she learns to just be with one person; but for now he was pretty happy to soak in this attention.

Eventually Mickey rolled off him and they lay side by side basking in the afterglow, with their sides touching. Lip sat up to peel off the condom and drop it in the bin next to the bed, and Mickey thought of something.

“I saw Karen drag you into the bushes at the beach last week, and you’re seriously telling me that you two weren’t fucking back there?”

“She pulled me back there to show me her new tattoo, it’s a fucking tramp stamp. She had to pull her pants down a little to show it all; believe me, I thought we were fucking that day as well.”

Mickey snorted and started laughing, loud and hard, Lip hit him in the face with a pillow, but that couldn’t stop him from shaking the bed with the force of them.

“Shut up,” Lip grouched, but soon joined in, and when the laughs faded and they were drifting off, both of them were smiling pretty widely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blacksmithing is waay too dangerous for a 10 year old, but would it really be a Shameless fanfic if there is no child endangerment going on?
> 
> Also I don't write sex too often, I hope it was alright.


	5. The Luau

Ian the farmer was a weird one. He apparently hung out with Mandy all the time, at least judging by how often she spoke about him; he also apparently had enough time in between running a fucking farm to run errands for the rest of the town, but when Mickey simply asks for 30 copper ores, since he knew that Ian had been wandering around in the mines, his request went unanswered.

Okay, maybe he was a little bitter, but seriously, one bad interaction with a moody preteen was enough to send him to the hills? He has so many younger siblings and Mickey had personally seen Debbie have a meltdown over Fiona refusing to lend her a top that would never fit her, and that is ten times worse than getting a little attitude from Yve. Although since Ian lived away from them for so many years, maybe he really wasn’t used to younger kids at all.

His axe sat in the corner of his shop, ready to be picked up; every time Lip saw it, he laughed. Every time Yve saw it, he rolled his eyes. Mickey was half tempted to deliver it to the farm, he can’t imagine the guy is having the easiest time planting crops around all the branches and the tree stumps that he knew covers the field, but he didn’t want to; why should he have to leave his comfort zone just so Ian didn’t have to leave his? The answer, he decided, was that he shouldn’t, and therefore he left it sitting there to gather dust, and often he completely forgot about it.

He sometimes forgot that Ian existed, he’d catch a flash of red here and there, but honestly, there were more than a few red heads in town for him to not automatically assume that it was him.

It was the day of the Luau on the beach, one of the only festivals that Mickey made an effort to go to, if only for the free food. The mayor had been making a big deal about everyone bringing something to throw into the pot this year, but after he and Mandy poured about five litres of Joja Cola into it a few years ago, he knew that he was banned from contributing, if not unofficially banned from the event itself; but since Ian moved to town, the mayor had been promoting ‘togetherness’ or some shit, so he doubted a big fuss would be made when he rocked up.

It was a boring day anyway, nobody needed his services lately, and even if the Luau hadn’t been scheduled, it would be the type of day that he’d spend at the beach anyway, so really it’s their own fault for having it there if they didn’t want him to come.

He started making his way over at around 10.30am, fashionably late, not only because he slept in, but also because that reduced the amount of time he’d have to wait until lunch.

He shuffles over the bridge with his hands in his pockets. He quickly eyes the crowd that were milling around; most had their little groups and rarely varied from them, with the mayor sucking up to the visiting Governor. He saw Mandy standing out on the pier with that jock she liked to fuck, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near that shit, so he wandered over to the buffet table to make himself a plate, and kept an eye out for Yevgeny; hopefully Svetlana will let them hang out for a bit.

As it turns out, she was actually in some semblance of a good mood that day, because she let him come over with only pursing her lips and a whisper of something in the boy’s ear before nudging him over. He practically ran over to his father, but then stopped and tried to look less interested about it like the cool ten year old he is; Mickey raised an eyebrow at his son, but offered his plate for the boy to pick off instead of commenting.

It was an hour or so later that Ian arrived, which prompted the townspeople to cheer, which was weird to Mickey, especially when he went around and got massive hugs from his sisters as if he hadn’t seen them in ages; the most he’d get would be a punch in the arm from Mandy if they hadn’t seen each other in a while. It seemed like he was making the rounds and getting similar greetings from the rest of the town, it probably wasn’t obvious to everyone else, but Mickey definitely noticed the way Ian completely avoided him. 

It got a bit later and the last calls for things to be added to the pot, and everyone cheered when Ian stepped forward and threw in some corn that he had grown, and Mickey could admit that seeing that was pretty exciting, it’d been a long time since the town had any fresh local produce, pretty much anything would be better than the crap from the Jojamart. Only a few minutes later the Governor took his customary first sip, and declared the stew to be wonderful, and the town took that as their queue to grab some of their own. Yve looked up at him and said that Svetlana wanted him to eat lunch with her, and with a nod and a pat on the shoulder, Mickey sent him off and quietly took a place at the back of the line to grab a bowl.

Mandy joined him when he was nearly at the front with a cheeky smile that Mickey rolled his eyes at, but accepted the company, lover boy had apparently decided that he couldn’t eat the stew because he was ‘cutting’ and didn’t know for sure what had been put into it, so he’d grabbed a plate of salad from the table and went to talk with his grandparents. 

The two siblings grabbed their food and headed off towards the shore to be out of the way and to stand in the water to cool off a bit, which basically turned into them gossiping and bitching about the people they were watching. Lip eventually joined them after hanging with his family and panting after Karen for most of the day, but Mickey had pretty much decided that he’d had enough of other people, and started to leave after leaving his bowl on one of the buffet tables. He had to pass the biggest family in town to head home, but he didn’t really give any of them a second thought until a giant redhead stepped in front of him.

“Hey there, uh, Mickey”, he said rubbing the back of his head.

Mickey nodded curtly back, folding his arms. Unless Ian was coming to collect his fucking axe and apologise for leaving it for so long, he honestly didn’t want to talk to him.

Ian seemed to sense that, and laughed awkwardly, “Hey, so, sorry I haven’t been around to pick up my axe, I guess I just forgot about it!”

Mickey raised an eyebrow, “Didja now? Well that shit is taking up space, so either pick it up tomorrow, or I’m going to start charging for storage.”

“Right, right.” Ian agreed quickly, “so uh- how often does your son stay with you?”

Mickey groaned, “are you fucking with me? You really haven’t been around because you’re scared of a 10 year old!”

Ian looked indignant, “No! I’ve been busy!”

“Yeah, I bet farming is a breeze when you can’t get rid of the stumps that are everywhere!” Mickey scoffed.

Ian’s cheeks were getting pink with anger and embarrassment, “what would you know about farming?”

At this point they had attracted the attention of the Gallagher's, and a few other people that were milling in the same area; Mickey was actively trying to improve his image in town from ‘thug’ to ‘useful thug’, so he lowered his voice. “Listen fuckhead, unless you wanna buy plastic tools from Jojamart, I’m the only blacksmith for miles around here. You don’t know shit about me, but you can know this; if you don’t come to pick up your crap tomorrow, I’m going to throw it down the mine and you can try and get it from there.” Then he stomped off.

He made sure that he was out of sight from the people on the beach when he let his shoulders drop and let out his righteous fury in a sigh. This is why he never went to these fucking festivals, it always ended in a fight. He decided right then that there was no fucking way that he was going to the shitty moonlight jelly festival in a few weeks, he would have more fun staring into the fire of his forge than he would watching for some swimming light globes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never got Clint any copper ores...


	6. I Flirt With Sarcasm

The next day he felt pretty stupid about the whole thing, honestly. Why the fuck was he making such a big deal about an axe sitting in the corner of his shop in front of the stupid sexy new guy and his overbearing as fuck family.

Jealousy was probably at least part of it, but he refused to think about that too much.

Instead he decided to focus his time on smelting some ores; Willy the fisherman had found some on the beach where they ended up after being carried down the river from the mountain. From the colour, it looks like they were iron, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t something else in there as well.

At some point in the morning, his door creaked open slowly, and he looked over his shoulder to see Ian stick his head in with a blank face. With a grunt, Mickey waved him over to the table by the door where he left the tool last night; usually he would tell his customers how he improved the it, as well as what they can do to make the most out of it as well as how to take care of it, but he wasn’t in the mood to talk today, so fucking shoot him, okay?

Turning his back to Ian he pretended to keep working, listening to the red head shuffle inside and pick up his axe. He didn’t leave after doing that, however, he actually walked over to the counter and cleared his throat. Mickey turned back to look at him and found him watching him intensely, with a hoe sitting on the counter.

Raising an eyebrow, Mickey turned to face him with his arms crossed. “The fuck you want me to do with that?”

Ian responded by crossing his own arms, “aren’t you the blacksmith? Or are you saying that you can’t do it?”

Mickey growled, “Course I can fucking do it.”

“Well then do it.” Ian smirked, “I’ll be back in a few days, here’s your money.” He puts the money on the bench and walks out without another word, leaving Mickey standing there, fuming.

The fucking arrogance of this guy, god he was hot. 

Stomping up to the bench, he lifted the hoe and gave it a once over. The fucker had polished it just before he brought it over, Mickey could still smell it on the tool, as if that would hide the fact that it was practically falling apart. The thing was a total write off, blunt and rusted, the head was probably only a few hits away from coming off the handle completely. He wondered for a moment if he should demand more money when the man comes back to pick it up for having to deal with him, but he let that stay as a fantasy; he really can't afford to chase off his only potential returning customer.

He set to work firing up the forge and set aside the ores he was playing with for the moment, he was glad to have a bit of work, especially with a few bills coming in. He sent a text to Mandy to bring over some beer after she finished work, then he got started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, but you gotta work your way up to the drama


	7. The Gallaghers Misunderstanding A Traumatic Situation? Them? No!

Mickey was pretty sure it wasn't normal, but him and Ian definitely have some sort of weird flirty thing going on. 

Pretty much every week the farmer brought around one of his tools to upgrade, he'd even had his pick axe upgraded to an iron one for the especially stubborn boulders that lay around the farm. Each tool was left with a suggestive comment, and then picked up with an increasingly assertive desire to watch Mickey work. 

Mickey remained stubborn and tried not to play along, but Ian left with a self satisfied smirk each time. 

He has just finished up making up some sprinklers. Even though it was mid Autumn, therefore mid harvest season, Ian insisted on ordering them now to look after a few of his crops so he had more time to start some other projects. 

Today was a Sunday, and he could usually expect the farmer on a Tuesday, so he decided to take the day to relax. Lip had stayed over the night before and agreed with this decision for the day. His boss worked him the hardest in Autumn before slowing right down for Winter, today was the first day off he's had in a while from both the scientist and from Fiona demanding he work at the shop. 

Mickey had accidentally woken Lip up at 6.30, his body far too used to getting up early to ever really sleep in. They went for another round in bed, then Lip decided he was going to make pancakes, hardly something Mickey was going to complain about; so he basked in the afterglow and quietly enjoyed the sounds of movement in the kitchen.

He couldn't stay still for too long though, so he got up to go and supervise.

Lip knew his way around a kitchen, growing up the way he did made it necessary to know how to make lots of food in a small amount of time, health and nutrition often falling to the wayside in favor of full bellies. This is how Mickey grew up as well, with food money mostly going towards alcohol and drugs when his father was around. 

Lip was whisking the mixture together as Mickey jumped up on the counter and watched while stealing sips of his coffee. 

“My pancakes never look this light and fluffy.” Mickey commented. 

Lip hit the whisk against the side of the bowl to get the excess off, then turned on the stove next to him before answering; “that's because you only buy those shitty Jojamart eggs, and not the actual good ones from Ian's farm.”

Mickey scoffed, “as if I'd buy shit from firecrotch.”

Lip poured out three blobs into the pan, “is it because you're scared of eating good quality food for once, or is it because you don’t know how to handle his hardcore flirting?” He cupped his chin as if he was thinking, “hmm, I wonder.”

Mickey rolled his eyes and shoved him, as if he was gonna admit that he didn't know what to do about his attraction to the red head.

Lip grinned because he knew exactly what was going on in his mind, and turned his attention to the pancakes, flipping them over to cook on the other side. “Why don't you actually be useful and get some toppings ready?”

Mickey hopped off the bench with a grunt and went to see what he had, both him and Lip preferred sweet pancakes, so he didn't have to worry about cooking up some bacon. He pulled out some chocolate syrup, and some strawberries he didn't know he had; he had a lemon in the fruit bowl and some sugar next to the coffee, so he decided that should be more than enough choices, maybe he’d also pull out the ice cream. 

He heard Lip sigh dramatically behind him, “man you drank all my coffee.” He finished with a whine.

“Fuck you're a little bitch,” was all Mickey could respond as he moved to make more for both of them. 

He went back to the fruit while waiting for the water to boil and set to work chopping. Like any good chef he had to sample the wares, and the instant he put one of the bright, red, juicy strawberries in his mouth he felt like he was in heaven. He groaned, a long satisfying thing, and whispered out a soft “oh my god.”

Lip had paused and was watching him when he opened his eyes again. “Wow, I thought only I could make those sounds come out.”

“I've tasted a miracle, a miracle of strawberries.” Mickey sighed. 

Lip laughed, “ha! My biggest competition has always been my brother.” Mickey was confused, “I brought them over last night after I visited his farm. I told you his stuff is the best.”

“Don't get too excited,” Mickey went back to chopping the fruit, “one good season does not make him the best farmer in the world.”

“Doesn't make him the worst either. And I'd say that even his worst season would be better than Jojamart.”

“Hey man, without Jojamart Mandy wouldn't have a job. She'd be working the streets, and she'd suck at that because she only has tiny boobs.”

“She told me the same thing about your dick.”

“Fuck off man” there was no heat to the words, and by now the toppings were chopped and the pancakes were ready, so they took the food to his tiny little table and ate. 

They didn't catch up much last night, so they took the opportunity to do so now. Lip talked about the work he was doing, with the scientist focusing on flowers and shit, Lip was slowly getting more interested in engineering, so he was actually working more with Maru, the daughter, at the moment. Mickey talked about Yevgeny mostly, his work staying pretty consistent thanks to Ian, and Yve was shaping up to be a cool little dude, his mum even letting him stay over one night a week. 

When they were done, Lip collected the dishes to wash them, and Mickey went to officially open up the shop for the day; he wasn't expecting much, if any business, but he opened every day except public holidays just in case. He was also still in the old tee-shirt and sweats that he threw on after getting up, so he went to go change into something a little more professional when the door opened behind him. 

Like a cosmic joke, Ian strolled straight through the door as if he'd been waiting for the shop to open. Raising a brow at the way Mickey was dressed, he crossed his arms and waited to be addressed. 

“What the fuck man, it is way too early for me to deal with your shit.” Mickey groaned. 

“Super sorry for giving you business, Mick, I just wanted to pick up my sprinklers. Or if you want, you could lock up again and I could show you how good my sprinkler is.”

Behind him, Mickey could faintly hear cackling, but he paid it no mind, Lip would get his later. 

“Oh fuck off with that weak ass shit.” Not his best response. “My ex wife comes up with sexier shit while she's threatening my life.”

“I never would've guessed that is what would make you horny, but I can play along.”

“You haven't got the accent to back it up.”

“Nor do I have your father standing behind you with a shotgun to marry me.”

That stopped Mickey short. “Don't talk about things you don't know about,” he warned quietly. 

“Don't know about it? Man, we all get the gay panic, although knocking up some whore and having daddy force you into marrying her is an old school way of proving how straight you are. But…”

“Stop, right now.”

“Wow Mick, I never realised you were such a prude. Lip said you were fun underneath the dirt, but all I'm finding is more dirt.”

“Ian, now is the time to fuck off.” Lip was standing at the top of the stairs leading to the kitchen. 

The farmer was clearly shocked to see him, “Lip? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I was gonna have a relaxing Sunday, maybe try and tempt Mickey into another round, but then you had to come around and cause drama.”

“What do you mean another round!” Ian raised his voice, “you're not gay Lip, what the fuck are you doing?”

“I like Mickey, that's the end of it.” Lip shrugged, “but that's not the point, you need to grab whatever you're here for, and go. I'll talk to you later.”

Ian approached Lip, trying to use his greater height to intimidate. “Oh yeah, we have a shit load to talk about later. Besides the fact that you're the one who told me what happened with the whore, so why are you getting so angry?”

Lip crossed his arms and stood his ground, “I told you because I was trying to help you score with him, not to use it as ammo.”

“Score with him? Like I need your help. And now we come full circle around to the fact that you two are fucking, because it seems pretty counterproductive since that would put a stop to your free fuck.”

“There is not enough time in the day to explain to you what is between me and Mick. All you need to know is that you're fucking blowing it right now.”

“As if! Sounds like you need to stay in your hetero lane because you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.”

“Hey!”

They swing their heads around to look at him, who was staring at them, jaw clenched, hands white knuckled, trembling faintly.

“Mick…” Lip took a step forward. 

“Get out,” he said softly, but neither of them moved. “Get out! Take you shit and get out!”

Mickey turned and grabbed the box that held the finished sprinklers, shoving it against Ian's chest and using it as leverage to help push him out the door. 

“Wait-” was all he got out before it shut in his face. 

With a twist of the lock, he was gone, and Mickey let his shoulders drop and felt tears well up in his eyes, then he turned to the other man.

“You have to go too.” He said. 

“Mick, I'm sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing when I told him”

Mickey nodded, “I get that, but it wasn't your story to tell. And I really wanna punch you in your fucking face right now, so you gotta fucking leave.”

Lip watched for a moment longer, and then walked upstairs to gather his stuff. When he came back down Mickey was standing with his back to him, staring at the forge. 

“You let me know when- well, when you wanna talk I guess.” He said, waiting until Mickey nodded before leaving out the door. 

Hours later, after he had drunk all the beer in the house, but wasn't as drunk as he wanted, Mandy let herself in. 

He didn't look up from his spot lying sideways on the couch, the weather channel on but providing nothing but background noise for his internal thoughts.

She didn't say anything, just put down her bags on his kitchen table and cracked open two of the beers she must've brought with her. She came over and nudged him to lift his head up enough for her to slide under and move his head to her lap, putting his beer on the floor in front of him while she stroked his long hair soothingly.

Both of them pretended not to notice the tears that wet her pants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mickey was raped and Mandy is a good sister


	8. When the angst truck hits...

The thing is, nobody knew the real story except Mickey. Well, Terry did, but with all the drugs and the blows to his head, who knew if he really actually remembered. Also he's in jail, so fuck him. 

Svetlana only knew that she was told to have sex with him, the baby was an accident, the marriage got her a green card, and overall, despite the unpleasantness of being married to him for a short time, she has come out on top. 

Technically, he knew he was raped, it was sex he didn't want, therefore it is rape, but he can't help the thoughts that say women can't rape men, and he came, therefore he enjoyed it, therefore it can't be actual real rape. 

A part of him is still in denial that his father would have such a massive overreaction to finding his gay porn mags. A huge part of him is scared to death of what will happen when he gets out. And he will get out, he always gets out. 

Mandy might have guessed by now. There were too many inconsistencies in his cover story, plus she would've heard the things Terry was saying after the fact. She never asked, but she is more than smart enough to put the pieces together. 

He never told Lip, not what actually happened, all he knew was that one day Mickey went to the city with his father, the next he was married and then the bitch was pregnant. A shotgun wedding, everyone laughed, and also, how fucked is it that everyone seemed to get so much enjoyment out of that shitty situation?

But when Ian said Lip had told him the whole story, Mickey's heart stopped. Had Lip actually told him the whole story and now he was sharing it around? Had he figured it out and so had the whole town and they were all secretly laughing behind his back because he was still walking around all tough after not liking the sex he'd had with a woman. What a pussy. Was that why it was still so funny to them?

When he wakes up the next morning, his head feels heavy from the tears he'd shed and the beer he'd drunk. Mandy had stayed the night, spooning up behind him, she always liked being the bigger spoon. 

She was already awake, as soon as he'd started to shift around she started petting his hair like she'd done the night before. He turned to face her and they let their foreheads rest against each other for a moment. 

“I don't think I can do much today,” Mickey murmured.

“So don't.” Mandy said, “lock the door, hit some metal, or lie on the couch.”

“OK.”

Mandy pulled her head away to look at him, “do you want me to stay?”

“... Yeah.”

“Alright, I will.”

“Thanks Mandy.”

“It's OK.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one. And at this point, I abandoned this fic for a good year, I couldn't figure out where to go after I'd made both potential love interests the bad guys. I would come back once a month or two to toy with a few story lines, sometimes writing whole chapters that I'd delete later because they didn't fit. I'm ultimately happy with how it goes on from here. Don't be scared to delete chapters that don't fit, you can change them, or take them out completely and maybe save them for another story at another time.


	9. Autumn Can Be Bitter Sweet

Mickey managed to avoid the Gallagher brothers for a week, he mostly avoided Ian since he's decided that he is a douchebag, but Lip hasn't been around, and Mickey has hardly left the shop. He opened up on the shop on the second day with Mandy coming and going from work. It was only yesterday that he convinced her to go home and fuck her boy toy. She said she was only leaving because she knew Yevgeny was coming over that day.

Knowing that his son was coming over gave him the energy to clean, something he'd neglected in the last week. The last thing he needed was for Yve to mention to his mother that the place was a mess, don't need to give her any reason to retract visitation. 

He started with the Yve's room, pretty much only dusting it, changing the sheets, and opening the windows to air it out. Winter was fast approaching so he wouldn't leave it open for too long, but the lingering smell from the furnace needed to go. He ignored his room, nobody was going to go in there anyway, and moved on to the kitchen and lounge room. By the end of it all, he was pretty pleased with how it was all looking, it felt like a positive step out of the black cloud that had been hanging around for a week. 

He descended the stairs to tidy up down there as well, only to find Svetlana standing at the counter reading through his invoices, and Yve sitting on the counter stool reading a book. 

Mickey crossed his arms, “you could've said that you were here.”

Svetlana didn't even look up, “I would never interrupt you as you clean. So nice to see you actually do it.”

Yevgeny waved as he approached, “hi dad.”

Mickey ruffled his hair and looked over at what his ex was reading. “And why are you reading my shit?”

“Do not swear in front of son.” She scolds. “You are still charging too little for your work. In the city you could get double what you get here.”

Mickey sighed, this was an old argument. “I don't have enough customers to charge more. If I go any higher it'd be the same price as ordering stuff in from the city.”

“I do not believe this.” She shook her head, “People pay for quality. I will call around and find out. You take Yevgeny for walk, the mountains are very pretty right now.”

With barely enough time to put on a coat, the boys were ushered out the door. It took Mickey a second to process all of what just happened, and eventually Yve just pat him on the arm. 

“You know she'll do it anyway, let's just go.”

“You're right, I just feel sorry for the people she's about to talk to.”

His son nodded his head sagely, grabbed his arm and started pulling him away from the shop. Mickey let him, it'd been a while since he'd actually gone for a walk up to the mountains, so this might actually be nice. 

So they headed that way, Grannie spied them walking past her house and hurried inside to bring them a batch of cookies. She was a good woman, always did her best towards him and Mandy when she could, the complete opposite of her husband, who always shakes his fist at them as they walk past. 

With their bag of cookies, the boys decided they'd get a few more treats for a little picnic at the top of the mountain. Jojamart would be cheaper, but Fiona's store was closer and Yve was already walking inside, so Mickey sucked in a breath and followed him in. Somehow luck was with him, and it was Carl behind the counter, boredly flipping through a magazine and barely looking up when they entered. Carl and him had a mutual respect, they don't ask, they don't tell. So letting Yve grab some more food while he grabbed some water bottles, Carl greeted him with a “hey Mick,” and saw them off with a small wave. 

They left and walked up the hill to the shitty old community center, which actually looked like it had had some work done. Maybe someone was fixing the old dump up. They saw the playground on the other side of the center but Yve showed no interest in going over there, apparently he always went there with the twins so now it was boring. 

They walk up the natural slopes worn in by many feet over the years. They soon pass house where Robin the builder and her scientist husband live, Mickey wonders if Lip is there, wonders if maybe he should go in and talk to him, just to hash it all out. But Yve keeps walking, so he doesn't stop. They walk up and around the lake, past the entrance to the mine, past the Adventurers' Guild, over to the little hill that overlooks the ruined bridge to the quarry on one side and the lake on the other. 

Wait a sec. 

“What the hell!” Mickey exclaimed. The bridge had been fixed! “When did this happen!” He could actually go and get ores and gems himself without having to brave the mine, or begging someone else to do it for him

“I thought this would make you happy.”

Mickey spun around to see Lip, hands in his pockets, looking like he'd leave if Mickey gave any hint he wanted him to. 

“Lip? You did this?”

The curly haired man approached to stand next to him. “Nah, I asked around but no one has taken credit, only Robin could really have done it, but she swears it wasn't her. I asked Yevgeny to bring you up here soon to make sure you knew.”

Mickey looked to his son, “thank you, Yve.” he said sincerely. 

Yve just shrugged and looked away blushing. 

“And thank you Lip.” He turned back to his part time lover. 

Lip smiled at him, before turning to his son. “Hey Yve, could you give us a moment? I promise I won't take more than a few minutes.”

Yve just shrugged again and wandered off to stand by the water, occasionally attempting to skip stones. 

“Mickey, I'm sorry.” Lip wasted no time, “I'm sorry I told Ian what happened, he just wasn't understanding what was going on between you and her and Yve. I didn't think that he might try to use it, actually I don't know what that was, was he trying to be playful? Maybe mean? I don't know.”

Mickey was nodding. “I know man. I know you were trying to help, but you should've asked me. When all that shit happened, it was bad, probably worse than you think, and to have someone who's practically a stranger make fun of me for it…”

Mickey trailed off and they both stood in silence for a moment, looking out onto the lake. Neither was very good at talking about their feelings.

“What are you going to do now?” Lip asks.

Mickey shrugs, “I have no idea, he’s my main source of income, I can’t refuse his business. But I also hate his fucking guts.” A cool wind blew between them, Mickey shivered and Lip moved closer to him, sharing his body heat.

Mickey looked at him, “and this,” he waved his hand between them. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore. You only talk to me when Karen is busy, she will ignore you for months or just straight up leave, and the minute she winks at you you’re all over her again.”

“Me and her. It’s just complicated, Mick.”

Mickey shook his head sadly, “I know, I know that she will always come first to you. I know that but it still fucking hurts that you can leave my bed and jump straight into hers. When it’s just us, it’s good, it’s real damn good, it’s more than just fucking to me, and I think you know that.”

Lip nodded, staring intensely.

“Yeah, and that’s what I want, I want someone to cook pancakes with every morning, someone who will be around to help me with invoices, someone I can actually hold hands with around the town because they don’t have some dumb fucking image to uphold. I know that person ain’t gonna be you, so it’s time I stop settling to be second best and let myself find it.” Mickey didn’t know that he had made this decision, but now that he’d said it, it sounded so right. 

He looked to Lip, the other man was frowning, “and you think that person is gonna be Ian?”

Mickey barked out a laugh, “fuck no, after all this shit? He’ll be lucky if I don’t just have Yve serve him at the shop from now on.”

“I didn’t mean to make you feel like this, Mick. I knew you were feeling things, but you never mentioned it or tried to change anything, so I thought it was OK.”

Mickey turned to him with a frustrated look, “of course I would never mention it! You’ve broken up with chicks just because they wanted to spend time with you! You make fun of Mandy all the time for being all over her boyfriend! How could I try and change what we had when you seemed to hate everything I want.”

Lip rubbed his face with his hands, “OK, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to fight. It’s fine, you don’t want to fuck anymore? Fine. Great. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.” And he stalked away.

Angry tears started welling up as Mickey watched him leave. “Yeah, it is fucking good.” He scrubbed his face and felt a small hand in his. Yevgeny saw the whole thing and now stood silently, watching his dad.

“I don’t want to picnic up here anymore, it’s too cold.” The boy said sternly.

His father choked out a laugh and agreed with him. “Yeah, it sucks up here, let’s go eat by the fire, it’s way warmer and we can burn things in it.”

They grinned at each other, and, holding hands, they made their way down the mountain, following the path along the banks of the river rather than the more popular path that goes through town. 

When they got back to the shop, Svetlana was gone, the mess of papers on his desk were stacked neatly as if they’d never been disturbed, but Mickey knew that she’d copied names and numbers and was probably currently harassing a lot of people. Mickey just hoped he would still have a business at the end of all of it.

The boys settled in as Mickey got the fire going upstairs in the living room. They sat on cushions on the floor and ate their snacks, occasionally throwing a treat in the fire for the simple pleasure of watching something burn. Then they wrapped themselves up in the blanket he usually had thrown over the back of the couch, and half watched TV for the rest of the afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Svetlana, and I think at this point in his life an older Mickey would have an appreciation for her as well. They both love their son and ultimately respect each other, in between insults and passive aggression.
> 
> Stay tuned! I think the next chapter is my favourite. Am I allowed to have a favourite as the author? I don't know, but I do


	10. Chapter 10

The next week was probably the loneliest Mickey had felt in a long time. Mandy came over and had breakfast with him and Yevgeny, after the boy went home he filled her in on how he broke up with Lip. She was surprised, but happy for him. She knew they would never make the other truly happy, they wanted very different things.

Winter officially began as well, and with it came the first snowfall of the season. Mickey had the very special privilege of having the forge, so at least he wasn’t paying out the ass for heating like the rest of the town. The snow did make him feel more isolated though, knowing that Lip wouldn’t be coming over anytime soon, knowing that it’d at least be another week until Yve gets to stay over again. The worst thing though was opening up his front door and seeing no footsteps in the snow, and knowing that meant nobody had come over to see him, even if it was only to see if he was open for business. It meant that the breakup, for lack of a better term, meant so little to Lip that he would happily stay in his own world with his family across the river, and not give a single thought to Mickey sitting alone in his shop.

And that was really fucking depressing, so Mickey tried not to look at the ground when he walked out his door that morning.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he trudged up to the Jojamart. He was hoping to see Mandy, she was leaving for a trip with her dumb jock boyfriend, he apparently was trying out for some sort of sports team. She said he was confident he’d get it, but Mickey kinda hoped he didn’t so Mandy wouldn’t leave.

He also wanted some more liquor, probably whiskey, that shit was cheap at the mart, mixed with so many other chemicals that it got you fucked really quick. 

He was just about to walk through the sliding glass doors when he smelt cigarette smoke coming from around the back. Mandy was the only one who smoked who worked here, so he went around to see. As he got closer it was clear she was talking to someone. 

"-ere? Have you even tried to speak to him?"

He rounded the corner and spied Mandy with Ian, she stood in her uniform and a big jacket, one hand on her hip and the other one down by her side with a cigarette. Ian's shoulders were drooped, like he was trying to look smaller and it was hilarious in front of a woman almost a head smaller than him. 

They both turned to him immediately, he'd made no attempt at being quiet. Ian looked down quickly, like he was ashamed, and Mandy held out her cigarette, offering it to him and beckoning him over. 

He took it with a nod and breathed in, he quirked an eyebrow at his sister. 

"Ian feels regretful about what happened the other week, but he hasn't had the balls to come over to you and say it." She explains.

"Man, what a pussy." Mickey said to her.

"Yeah, and even though right now would be the perfect time to upgrade his watering can, he can't quite find the courage to put his big boy pants on to go to your shop and give you such sorely needed business." She took her cigarette back. 

"Mandy-" Ian tried to speak. 

"Well that is very selfish of him, to stop supporting a small business just because he knew he overstepped a line and was too afraid to apologise."

"Guys-" Ian tried again. 

"If I were him, I would take the first opportunity I got to talk to you, maybe give you some of my strawberries to help ease the pain of having to interact with me." She hands the cigarette back to her brother 

"OK! I get it!" The redhead throws his hands in the air.

Mickey finally turns to look at him, "oh Ian, when did you get here? We were just talking about you." He takes a drag. 

Ian lets out a sigh and looks at Mandy, "can you give us a minute, Mands?"

She snorts, "fuck no. After what happened last time? I'm staying right here."

Mickey finishes the smoke and stomps it under his foot. "It's OK. Go do some actual work you lazy bitch."

"Fuck you, asshole." She says, but gives him a hug. "Come in to see me after."

"I will." He promises, and they both watch her go around the corner until they hear the faint sound of the mart's doors sliding open and closed. 

He and Ian face each other now, and Mickey feels this strange sort of calm. There'd been a lot of emotional turmoil in his life this past few weeks, and it left him feeling almost numb for whatever Ian was about to throw at him. He'd no doubt find a way to twist it all around to make it all Mickey's fault, being the victim and never taking responsibility seems to be a Gallagher trait after all. 

"Ah, well," Ian tried to start, running a hand through his hair. "I guess I should apologise."

Mickey snorts, "you guess? Do you even know what you did wrong, or are you just gonna give me something generic like, 'I'm sorry you got upset.'"

"I know!" Ian was indignant, "I tried to make a joke out of what was a traumatic experience, one I do not fully understand, and persisted even when you asked me to stop."

Mickey felt his heart speed up, "why do you think it was a traumatic experience?"

"Because I have eyes and the power of hindsight. Back in the city, I saw shit, I did shit, we all did. It affects us every day, and I can see that something big affects you, and judging by the way you shut down when I brought it up, it was not a marriage of happiness."

Mickey crossed his arms defensively, "I don't have to tell you shit."

Ian nodded, "no, you don't. And I'm not asking you to, but you should talk to someone about it, a professional, they can help you work past it, it might take a load off your shoulders."

"I'm not talking to no shrink, I'm not crazy!" Mickey snarled, now thoroughly regretting sending Mandy away. 

Ian put his hands out in surrender. "I know you're not crazy! I promise this is from a place of caring. I have bipolar, it took me a long time to accept it and to seek help. I tried drugs, sex, and alcohol to help cope with it but I could see I was on the same road as my mother, so I put myself in hospital, got it sorted."

"I've met your mum, that bitch is crazy. She came at me with a knife once because I socked Frank in the face. I thought it was just drugs."

"Well, yeah, it was, but it was also bipolar. She was so excited when I was diagnosed, she thought we had a special connection. Sold my meds and took me on a month-long bender, I'm surprised I'm still alive." Ian laughs self deprecatingly. 

Mickey felt a little bit calmer now that they weren't focusing on him. He knew the Gallaghers grew up rough, that's what made them move out to the Valley, but he had to admit he immediately judged Ian to be some yuppie who was having a go at a farm, but had money to fall back on if it failed. 

"Once I got myself sober and sorted out, I found out that I'd inherited the farm. Fi wanted to sell it, business is slow thanks to the Jojamart, but I saw it as my chance to get away from the bullshit. Everyone else found something for themselves here, and I'm beginning to think I have as well."

"Right. That is very inspiring." Mickey said sarcastically.

Ian laughed again, "well that is basically my life story, thank you for listening. But seriously, have you spoken to Caleb? Country doctors should have at least the fundamentals of psychology somewhere in their training."

Mickey scoffs, "man I wouldn't trust that fuckhead with a cold. He told me once, when he was digging a bullet out of my thigh that he moved out of the city to get away from drug dealers like me, and that he expects the next time I come in it'll be for a bullet in the back of my head."

Ian was shocked, "what the fuck?"

"Surely you've heard my family's reputation by now? Dad and older brother in jail, drugs, violence, ordering a fucking hit on someone, mum walked into the ocean with rocks in her pockets, can barely afford to own the trailer on the river bank?"

"I've heard some things," Ian mumbled, "I didn't know about your mum. I'm sorry."

Mickey shrugged, "I don't remember her, it was soon after Mandy was born."

"How did you get shot?"

"Which time?" Mickey laughs at Ian's shocked face, "man, I'm not going into that today. It's fucking cold out here, I just came to see Mandy before she left."

"Yeah," Ian said, sounding thoughtful, "but before you go, I am so sorry for talking about something I didn't understand and not stopping when you asked me to. I'm sorry for fighting with Lip over you like you were a piece of meat. I'm sorry for not coming to you sooner with this apology, and I'm sorry that I might have ruined any friendship, or whatever, that might have been developing between us."

"It's OK." He said in a tiny voice after a pause, not sure that he could say anything else. Feeling validated was not something he got to feel often, he was actually starting to wonder if he'd overreacted to it all.

"It's not OK, but I'm going to work at getting us there. Do you mind if I come around later this afternoon? Mandy was right about my watering can, I might as well get it fixed up while I have nothing to water."

"Yeah, sure," Mickey said, looking down to hide his wet eyes. "You know the price."

"Yeah, and I'll bring you some strawberries. I had a really good season with them."

"You don't have to…"

"I want to. I want to share my harvest with the town, with everyone who supported me, which includes you." He moved to leave, but then he stopped, raising a hesitant hand to Mickey's shoulder and patting it when the smaller man didn't move away. "I'll see you later Mickey."

"Bye Ian," he said softly, and he got a little smile in return before the redhead turned the corner and disappeared from sight. 

Well he was really fucking wrong about being prepared for whatever shit Ian had to say. He wasn't prepared at all. 

Barely remembering his whole purpose of coming to the Jojamart in the first place, he did briefly go inside to talk to Mandy, assuring her that Ian behaved himself and allowing her to give him a hug, and for her to drop a few things into his pockets as he was leaving. 

Those things were apparently condoms, cigarettes, and three apples that she'd stuffed into his hoodie's pockets. He had no idea why she assumed he didn’t have condoms; it wasn't like he threw them all out the second he broke up with Lip. 

Later on, just before he was due to close, the door to his shop opened and Ian stuck his head in, with an eyebrow raised in question, only coming inside when Mickey beckoned him in from his place at the forge. 

In a change of pace for the two of them, it was straight to business. Ian had his iron ingots ready and he held out his watering can, showing him the bumps and dents from everyday use, how he felt the spout could be improved, and Mickey listened, telling him what he could do, throwing in a few ideas he had, and starting an invoice right there so he had it all in writing. It was revised a few times, until they were both happy. They had moved to stand at the counter leaning over it from either side, Ian put the money for the job down, but hesitated in leaving. 

"This is presumptuous of me." He stated. And before Mickey could even begin to understand what he meant, the taller man had taken off his backpack, opening it to reveal not only the strawberries, but also fish, vegetables, and even some truffle oil. 

Looking at Mickey with big doe eyes, he asks, "can I make you dinner?"

Maybe a stronger man could've said no, but Mickey never claimed to be one of them, so he gestured behind him to the stairs to his apartment, and then closed up the shop. 

When he got upstairs Ian had already gotten to work, having grabbed a chopping board and knife from the drying rack, and humming some sort of tune. 

"Anything I can do to help?" He asked, feeling a bit weird just standing there and watching in his own kitchen. 

"You can finish cutting these vegetables, just into small pieces, but they don't need to be diced." Mickey moved to do just that as Ian moved over to prepare the fish. "And in the meantime, you can tell me about how you came to be shot in the thigh."

Mickey laughs a genuine laugh, "believe it or not, it's actually a funny story."

"Tell me, then." And he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a real thing about non apologies irl. 'I'm sorry you were offended, but...' type ones where they say 'I'm sorry', but actually twist it around to put the blame on you, or they're only apologising because they know they should, not actually because they feel bad.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	11. The First Date, On The Second Last Chapter

OK, so to say that all was forgiven in the span of a day would be incorrect. But damn did Ian work for it. 

Gone was the aggressive flirting, the terrible sexual puns and all. Ian had long realised that they weren't winning points in his favour, but he did enjoy annoying Mickey, getting him to roll his eyes or to groan in frustration.

The teasing turned a lot more playful the more they saw each other, still for the purpose of annoying each other, but this time with a smile of fond exasperation. 

They spent a lot more time together as well. At least every second day Ian would come to the shop, sometimes to give him little gifts, like more strawberries or some ores to break open. Mickey, in turn, would often give him meals he'd made, or even sometimes brownies, which were the only desserts he knew how to make. 

Mandy came back from the city, they don't know if her boy toy got a spot on the team or not yet, they just have to wait for the phone call. She was really happy with the progress her two boys were making with each other, once they were getting along she made it no secret that she wanted them to date.

So on this particular Friday night, the two siblings stood in front of Mickey's wardrobe. Ian had officially asked him out on a date, and he'd immediately said yes, and then quietly started freaking out; this was going to be his first date ever, which would be enough to panic him, but then Ian suggested that they have dinner at the farm, and that was enough to make him feel faint. 

Mandy was doing her best to try and calm his nerves, distracting him with trying to match his outfit, then trying to style his long hair, which she eventually just tied into a sloppy-but-on-purpose manbun.

"I look like a yuppie." He'd complained. 

"So does Ian, you'll be fine." She replied.

He was supposed to be at the farm at 6pm, so at 5.30 he started a slow walk over. Mandy was with him part of the way, but she left him as they passed her boyfriend's place; she was pretty much living there full time now, his grandparents didn't really mind because she helped with chores. Their childhood home, the trailer, now sat empty on the river bank; sometimes Mickey was tempted to push it in, and if Mandy agreed to do it with him, he definitely will one day. 

He passed by Kev and Vee's bar, loud and thumping like any typical Friday. He pretty much avoided the place since his ex-wife got married to the two of them, they already had low opinions of him, the last thing he needed was for them to judge him whenever he walked in the door. 

He passed Fi's shop and Caleb's clinic, both shut now and everyone was probably at the bar; there was nothing else to do in this town.

It'd been a very long time since he'd ventured any further than this. As kids they would play in the rundown, overgrown fields of the farm. The house had been demolished in the explosion that happened years before their time, and they were too young to really grasp that someone had died there as a result, idly he wondered if Ian knew what he was living on top of, but surely he must, his family would've told him by now. 

He walked past the road where he knew Terry's old drug bus sat rotting, and saw it there looking shiny and new. He couldn't help himself, he ran up to it, inspecting it as best he could. It looked like it was a new bus entirely, but he could see ancient scars that he recognised as unique. On the back there was a spoiler, Iggy had read that it made cars go faster, so applied that logic to the bus and installed it; it didn't fucking work of course, it was already weighed down with bricks of cocaine, so they were never gonna outrun a cop. On the front bumper there was a little engraved picture, Mandy's preteen rebellion, it was just a few small that she carved in with a knife, but Terry saw it as an identifying marker, and when Mickey took the blame he was beaten until he couldn't walk for days. The dumb fuck did it in the middle of town, so there were enough witnesses to put him away for a little bit, and Mickey and Mandy stayed with the old folks for a while.

This was definitely the old bus, but who the fuck went to the effort to fix it up? 

He thought he might ask Mandy tomorrow, she was usually up on the gossip in town. 

He walked the rest of the way to the farm, now slightly late, and had to stop and admire it. It was much cleaner and more organised than the last time he was here; fences separated the livestock from the fields, although nothing was growing there at the moment, he could see where the sprinklers he'd made were set up for the coming spring season. He spied an orchard nearby, still all saplings but the promise of fresh peaches coming in summer made his mouth water. 

The porch light was on at the little cabin, and as he approached the door opened for him, and Ian let him inside. He came in, Ian closing the door behind him, and grabbing him in a hug as he was removing his coat. This was a new thing between them, and Mickey couldn't say he hated it. 

They let go and Ian gave him the grand tour from the front door; to the right was a wooden room divider that indicated that half was the bedroom. To the left was a kitchenette, a basic fridge and stove top, no oven and a few counters. Mickey raised an eyebrow at it, looking at Ian who looked bashful. 

"I ah… it's not much, I know. But I'm actually going to see Robin tomorrow and organise to get an extension."

"That's great actually." Mickey smiled, "that means she'll be hiring me to make some nails and junk for it."

Ian grinned at him, "well, you're welcome!"

Mickey laughed, "thanks, now I can afford actual nice presents. Mandy wants some pretty expensive shit for being nothing but a check out bitch."

"You have to give the girl what she wants." 

"Yeah, but I'm hoping her boyfriend will step up this year. Last year he went on a beach holiday without telling her, but she'd been saying they weren't exclusive, so she dug her own grave in my opinion."

"Really?" Ian was surprised, moving over to the fridge and grabbing some soup out of it. "She seems so in love with him, I can't believe she was trying to play the field." Ian gestured to a loaf of crusty bread sitting on the bench, "would you mind?"

Mickey nods, also coming into the kitchen to cut the bread with the knife sitting next to it. "I don't blame her, it was your asshole brother who convinced her that guys didn't want a clingy bitch, so she tried to play it cool."

"Yeah, his attitude sucks."

"To be fair," and Mickey did hate being fair to the guy who toyed with him for such a long time, "I reckon that's mostly Karen's fault. She doesn't know the meaning of settling down, and while Lip's obsessed with her, she'll happily have several dudes on the side."

Ian slows his stirring, he had a pot on the stove on a low heat to slowly warm it. "Yeah, and that's turned into a huge mess," he muttered.

Mickey stops, "did something new happen?"

"Karen's pregnant. Could be Lip's, could be Chodie's, could literally be anyone's, but Lip isn't having any of that. He's basically claimed the thing and is constantly hovering around her. She's only going to put up with that for so long before she snaps, and it won't be pretty."

"Oh shit," Mickey breathed, not quite sure how to take any of this. While it wasn't unusual for Lip to sleep with Mickey while mostly seeing Karen, this explains why he'd not even attempted to come to the shop recently. 

"Are you alright?" Ian asks gently. They hadn't really gone into Lip and Mickey's relationship, except to say that it was never anything serious, and it was over now.

"I am," Mickey says, feeling that even deep in his heart, he is OK about this. "It's just a blow, you know? He would never truly be happy with anyone but her, but I just wish he was honest with me. I thought we were good friends outside of the fucking, he'd helped me so much getting out from under Terry's thumb. I would've hoped he could tell me about this even if we did just have a fight."

"He told me in early winter. But that was only because I saw him leaving their house while I was fishing. I think by now the only reason you didn't know was because you don't come across the river much and wouldn't see her."

"Yeah," Mickey replied, putting the slices he'd cut on a plate as Ian served them some soup in bowls. 

They carried them over to the fireplace, there was a small TV sitting on the floor, as well as a two seater where they sat down carefully with their meals.

"I kinda ruined the mood there didn't I?" Ian asks ruefully, staring into the bowl he was slowly stirring. 

"No, I don't think you did." Mickey shakes his head. "It's good that I know now. That door is finally shut and I can move on, just in time for my first date."

Ian looks at him, "your first date with me, or your first date date." He questions innocently, but there was a fire in his eyes. 

"Uh, yeah." Mickey felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment, "but that should be pretty obvious, I've only gone to the city a few times, and that was not a good time. With Lip it was just fucking, and Caleb had hated me since the first time he saw me. Not a lot of options for a gay dude like me."

"Yeah? But. I don't know, I guess I've never been anyone's first before."

Mickey snorts a laugh, "you're not popping my cherry, just my date cherry."

But Ian still looks downcast, "yeah, but this is your first official date. Reheated soup in a drafty cabin, and you have to walk through heavy snow to get there? Sounds pretty shitty to me."

Mickey sighs, carefully puts his soup on the coffee table in front of him and leans over to rest his head on Ian's shoulder. "Pumpkin soup is my favourite soup, made even better with crusty bread. You just told me you were about to upgrade your house, literally giving me work, so I don't care how it looks right now. And I got to see all the progress you've made, it was cool to see the old fields I used to play in, and see what you've done with them."

Ian leans his cheek on the top of Mickey's head. "Are you sure?"

Mickey snorts. "You keep forgetting I'm not one of your city boys. I don't need no fancy restaurant, a horse and carriage ride, or whatever you normally do-"

"I'm pretty sure carriage rides are only in romance movies," Ian laughs.

"Anyway…" Mickey continues, "this is a pretty perfect first date to me, even if you didn't make the soup yourself.

"Hey!" Ian sits up, knocking Mickey's head off his shoulder. "I made it!"

Mickey gives him a look and gestures to the kitchenette, "yeah? You and what kitchen?"

Ian's cheeks go a bit red, "OK, so I had to use Fi's kitchen to make it. And Debbie did help a little bit. And Carl was the official taste tester. But it's still my recipe, and I did the bulk of the cooking."

"OK, man, OK." Mickey holds his hands up in surrender. He picks up his bowl and has a spoonful of soup. "It's good. I hope your extension includes a new kitchen so you can make it for me again."

"We gonna have another date, Mick?" Ian asks mildly.

This time it was Mickey's cheeks that heated up. "Well I was thinking there would be. This is my first one, so I don't really have any experience to go off."

Ian laughs, "calm down, there's definitely gonna be another."

Mickey nods, "good."

Later on, Ian insisted on walking him home. Mickey was partially expecting to have sex, but Ian was insistent that they follow the dating rules. Kiss on the first date, make out on the second, and sex on the third. Mickey was a little frustrated, he was no shy virgin, but he also found it super endearing of the red head to care so much about making it special. 

So they walked through the snow, the temperature had massively dropped and they were both shivering despite the layers they wore. A few times Mickey told Ian to head back, but he was adamant to walk him to his door, which was sweet. 

The street lights made the softly falling snow look magical, and Ian's hand snuck out to grab his without either one of them acknowledging it beyond a small smile. 

They passed the bar, it was late enough that it was winding down for the night, only the most keen drinkers were just stumbling out now, which obviously meant that Frank was being kicked out now, basically falling down the stairs. He picked himself up with a grumble and noticed them watching him. 

"Boys." He gave them a sloppy salute, "wonderful night for a stroll, but it can get a bit cold without something warm in the belly. Got any change? Or any booze? Either will do."

Mickey scoffed, "no way old man, Sheila's probably waiting for you with the fire going, you're getting nothing from me."

Ian rolled his eyes as well, "go home Frank, before you freeze to death."

Frank frowned at them both, "well isn't this just telling of the youth these days! One is a successful business owner, and the other one stole my inheritance from me! And neither can spare a dollar! One day you'll find yourself out in the cold, and nobody will help you, and I'll be laughing from my grave! And-"

"Shut up, Frank!" Kev swung the bar's door open. "I am not going to go through another night of my kids thinking there's ghosts out here because of your yelling!" The big man looks at them, "oh hey Ian, hey Mick."

"Hey Kev," Ian replied, and Mickey nodded at him. 

Kev turns back to his longtime patron. "Go home Frank, and bring money for your tab tomorrow or Svetlana will bash your kneecaps."

Frank throws his hands up in the air dramatically, whining about society again, and starts to wander off in the vague direction of the ranch. 

They all watched him go, and Kev turns to Ian, "you mind making sure he doesn't fall asleep in a snowbank? It's not good for business if he dies."

"But-" Ian turns to Mickey, who nods in the direction of his father. 

"You'd better look after him."

Ian sighs, disappointed, "OK." and then, hesitantly, he leans in for a kiss, unsure of the boundaries, especially in front of other people; but Mickey met him halfway for a chaste kiss, and it was enough to make them both smile. 

"I'll come over tomorrow." Ian says, and when Mickey nods in agreement, he follows his father gently taking his arm to steer him home. 

Kev whistles. "Good on you man, Ian's a good guy."

"Yeah," Mickey replies with a bit of a dopey smile. 

"It's good to see you as well, you should stop by the bar more. Svetlana finally stopped cursing your name for every little inconvenience, it's made the whole bar atmosphere much nicer."

"Well that is a bonus." Mickey says, ruefully, "I might come over more, I just didn't want her to think that I was trying to sneak in extra time with Yve without her permission; the last thing I want is to see him even less."

"Yeah, but this past month that you've been taking him once a week is awesome! We send the girls to their grandma and we have mad sex! We haven't been able to do that since they got big enough to open doors!"

Mickey cringed back, "ew man, the last thing I want to hear about is my ex-wife's sex life. I already had to do that once and that was enough."

Kev laughed loudly, then winced when he faintly heard Vee call his name. "I gotta go clean up, you have a good night, Mick. Congrats again with Ian." and with a little wave that Mickey returned, he went back inside and locked the door.

Mickey walked the rest of the way home happy, genuinely happy. Not only was Ian the type to show affection in front of others, he was unofficially welcomed back into the only bar in town, although that was with a grain of salt; Kev was the type who would keep offering beers to Frank even though he owed him a lot of money, it was more about what Vee and Svetlana said than anyone else.

But still, it was good to see the big man again, and it really just capped off a nice night for him. 

He went to bed smiling that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I forgot the title the last chapter. But I'm not changing it now.


	12. I Saw Daddy Kissing A Red Headed Santa Clause Under The Christmas Tree

A few weeks later came the Festival of the Winter Star, which was a very fancy name for the town coming together to eat themselves sick, and then give each other presents.

Normally this was the worst holiday for Mickey, it was the time of year that friends and family came together to be thankful for one another, but it only served to remind him that he barely got to see his son, and that Mandy would one day make her own family and he'd finally be alone.

But this year he had Ian. They'd already talked about spending a bit of time together on the eve, and then making their relationship official to the Gallagher's on the day. It was a huge step for Mickey, but Ian was confident they'd have their full support. 

It was pretty rare for Mickey to care what other people thought, but this was important, family was important to Ian, so he'd do his best. 

The adults in town were all entered into a random gift exchange every year; they'd get randomly assigned a name and then get that person a present. There had been years that Mickey didn't get a gift from whoever drew his name, and then they'd stopped sending him a name to buy for, so from then he'd just assumed this was another festival he wasn't invited to, so he stopped going.

He didn't know if it was because of Ian or what, but this year he got a name, Sheila's, which really suited him; she has probably been the most consistently nice person to him over the years, so he'd make something special to help her on the ranch. Or a muzzle for Frank, either one. 

Ian got Granny, and at least Mickey could pretty safely assure him that getting her a bunch of tulips would make her happy. Secretly, Mickey was also going to get Ian a present, as well as Yevgeny and Mandy. The other two are easy, he knows them well enough to get them pretty decent presents, but Ian on the other hand is a bit harder. They've known each other for almost a year, dated for most of the past month, but it's not like they have gone shopping together, or had any in depth conversations about it. After stressing about it, he eventually decided to make him something for his newly extended house; he was no artist, but he could smelt something pretty cool, he was almost positive.

The hard part was keeping it a secret from him; the farm had basically shut down for winter, so after he tended to his animals, Ian pretty much came to hang out at the shop, which was nice, but also, it made it very hard to work. 

Mickey had resorted to sending him away on errands, or basically banning him from the shop until after close, which Ian accepted only grudgingly, although he did understand.

Mickey had decided to make Ian a small iron llama sculpture. It was probably dumb, but he'd read that llamas are sometimes used to protect sheep from wolves and shit. He didn’t think that there were any wolves around here, but hopefully he got points for the symbolism.

They woke up together this morning, they’d spent the night at Mickey’s house, curled up by the fire, with mulled wine and marshmallows. Ian had been staying over until his extension was complete, hopefully within the next few days since honestly, his shop wasn’t much better in terms of size, and insulation.

Mickey gave Ian his present after breakfast, the taller man was delighted by it, admiring the craftsmanship it took. 

“This is why you kept making me do your busy work wasn’t it?” Ian asked with an eyebrow raised, but a smile on his face.

Mickey blushed and nodded, he was then pulled into a heated kiss, one that suggested they go back to bed, but they didn’t have long before they needed to get ready for the festival. 

Ian left with a wave, he had to go back to the farm to tend to his animals, but he’ll be back in time for lunch, he promised. This conveniently left Mickey with the dishes to clean up after breakfast, that prick, but he felt so overwhelmingly happy that he didn’t mind. He was nervous about telling the Gallagher's, hell the whole town about their relationship, it had been nice just keeping it to themselves. Mandy knew, obviously, she had been super supportive whenever Mickey started to freak out about actually dating someone. Kev knew as well, and honestly, he was surprised that the big man hadn’t blabbed it to everyone who walked into the bar, either he realised it was a new thing and kept it to himself, or he hadn’t thought about it at all since.

He was the most worried about telling Lip at the end of the day. There were still feelings there, their history is way too long and complicated for him to just stop having a crush, and he was truthful to Ian about that, but Lip only wanted Karen, no matter what shit she put him through. Now that they had officially ended things, Mickey could look back and see how much it hurt when Lip would ditch him for her, ignore him for months when she came back from the city, and when she would leave again, having to essentially pick up the pieces of Lip’s heart until she came back around. He put up with so much from both of them because he thought that would be the best he would get in life.

Honestly, he was mostly nervous that Lip wouldn’t give a shit, that he would just shrug and say ‘good’, like he’d been waiting for someone to take Mickey’s attention off him because it was getting annoying.

A few hours later, having done just enough busy work to waste the time away, Mickey stepped out of the shop, bag in hand with presents for his loved ones, and slowly made his way over to the town square, where a humongous pine tree, decorated in lights and baubles stood tall.

He wasn’t anywhere near the first to arrive, the older folks had found their spots and were talking amoungst themselves. Yev and his step sisters were running around excited by it all, and when the boy caught sight of him and ran over and gave him a big hug, not even trying to be anything but happy to see his dad today. Mickey returned the hug, happy, and let the boy go when it was obvious he wanted to get back to playing. 

Mickey moved to the tree to set his presents down with the growing pile of them when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and had soft lips gently brush his cheek. Svetlana had approached him silently, as she does, and smiled at his confusion.

“You are good father to Yevgeny, we will talk, maybe he can stay at your house more often.”

Mickey was shocked, gaping like a fish, “r-really?” He sputtered out.

“Yes,” she nods, “a boy needs his father, it is hard to share Kevin with his sisters. We will talk later about it.”

“Thanks Svetlana.” He was still awed by what to him seems like a sudden decision. She seemed to enjoy his reaction, gave him a little nod, and went back to her little family where Kev was giving him a big thumbs up and Vee had her arms crossed, but gave him a nod to show she agreed.

He then found Mandy, sitting next to her boyfriend, who was telling some random guy sitting next to him about something with a lot of enthusiasm. He sat down next to her.

“Did you see what just happened?” He asked his sister, still dumbfounded.

“Yeah,” she smirked at him, “It only took, what, ten years to finally convince her you’re not as shitty as you look?”

“Ha ha, you bitch.”

“But seriously, congrats. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that they want to had heaps of freaky sex without children around.”

Mickey shrugged, “I don’t care what their reason is. Besides, if Svetlana didn’t want me to see him, she wouldn’t let me, regardless of all the fucking they want to do.”

Mandy nodded, “True enough, she’d give him to literally anyone else just to spite you. Except maybe Frank.” She threw her arm around him and gave him a side hug, “congrats big bro.”

He returned it, “Thanks Mandy.”

Across from their table the Galleghers had claimed a whole one to themselves since there were so many of them. It looks like there had already been a fight that day with the way Debbie was sulking and Fi was pointedly ignoring her. Carl had his chin propped up in his hand and was boredly watching everyone else, giving Mickey a nod when their eyes met. Sheila was also at the table, since she was an honorary member for putting up with Frank for so long, who speaking of was nowhere in sight, and Mickey assumed he would appear later when the family fun time ended and it became more of an adult party. At least no one had to keep an eye on the punch for the moment. Mickey assumed that Lip and Karen would be joining the table soon enough, he hadn’t actually seen the girl since he found out that she was pregnant, and he was curious to see how far along she was, for how long was Lip going between the two of them before Mickey broke it off.

Then Ian arrived to the customary cheers he got whenever he came along, which annoyed Mickey in the beginning, but now it seemed appropriate, he too was excited to see the red head, even if it had only been a few hours since they’d parted.

He stopped at his family’s table first, hugs and kisses all around. Then he went to the tree to deposit the gifts he had brought. Then he came over to Mickey, a soft smile on his face and bent down to kiss him on the lips, which Mickey returned easily. 

“Ew, fucking disgusting.” Mandy said with a smirk.

“Shut up, bitch.” Mickey retorted.

“Play nice, kids.” Ian said, sitting down next to Mickey and wrapping an arm around him, which Mickey immediately rested back in to.

Out the corner of his eye Mickey watched the Gallagher clan process what was happening. They already knew Ian was gay, so there was no disgust amongst them, mostly just raised eyebrows, looks of confusion, and knowing smirks.

For some reason, probably due to the romantic comedies that Mandy made him watch but he also kind of enjoyed, he thought that he and Ian would be making a huge public announcement; declaring their undying love and daring anyone to have a problem, then, if everything went well, there would be a round of applause that started with one person, Mandy probably, then it would slowly escalate until everyone joined in. Needless to say, he was glad they did it this way, Mickey didn’t really like being the centre of attention.

No doubt there would be questions later, but for now, they could enjoy the festival together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously this festival is Christmas, but they don't call it that in the game, so I'm staying true to the source material.
> 
> I hate how this chapter ended, I might come back and change it at some point, just a reword, not any drastic changes.
> 
> Last chapter coming soon!


	13. The End

With his heart full of love, joy, and every other holiday stereotype, Mickey didn’t actually notice when Lip and Karen joined the festival. 

Everything was crowded now, from the food tables, to the presents under the tree. All the kids were running around, getting under people’s feets, and Mickey had to admit he had never experienced a festival like this. Before he had always felt that he was barely tolerated, of his family it was usually only him and Mandy around because they weren’t in jail or dead, and it felt too awkward to try and join in when they didn’t have anything to offer. As an adult Mickey would try and make an effort for Yevgeny, but when that only served to annoy Svetlana more, he just wouldn’t come, bitterness leading him to day drinking until he passed out.

But the whole town’s atmosphere had seemed to shift with Ian’s arrival, which allowed even the outcasts to be welcomed. Mickey thought it was corny as shit that one person essentially achieved this for them, but since that guy was his boyfriend, he could let it go.

Later on, when kids were ushered off to bed, and the festival had been mostly packed up, most of the adults retreated to the bar. Kev, in a rush of holiday spirit, had bought the first round for everyone, with Vee making sure everyone knew it was only this one round. Regardless, beers were passed around and everyone toasted to the festival. The atmosphere was light, and one by one, the Gallaghers came up to congratulate the new couple, shaking their hands or hugging them, any previous animosity apparently forgotten for the moment. Fi told him Mickey to look after Ian, and Mickey promised that he would.

Escaping the crowd for the moment when his social quota was getting full, Mickey rested by the bar where Svetlana poured them both a shot of vodka, which they clinked together and swallowed down.

“That is the only free one I give you.” She told him.

Mickey nodded, “I wouldn’t expect it any other way.”

“He makes you happy, I have seen it. This is why Yevgeny may come over more, nobody wants to stay with a depressed father.” She told him straight, never one to mince words.

He frowned at her, “are you telling me that the only reason you hardly let me see him was because I was sad?”

She shook her head, “no, you were also a shit bag that I hate. You still are, but you are happy now.”

Mickey laughed, “I’ll drink to that!” He paid her to pour them both another shot which they drank together.

Moving on, he spied Lip and Karen in the corner. Neither looked happy, they were sitting next to each other but looked like they would rather be on the other side of the room to the other. They were out the back where it was a little bit quieter, and when Mickey approached he could see Chody was there near them playing pool by himself, Mickey didn’t even know that he was still around.

Deciding to be a bigger man for once, and helped by the two shots and two beers he’d already had, Mickey approached the quiet group. Lip was nursing a beer in his hands while Karen appeared to have a bubbling glass of sparkling water and Mickey dearly hoped that was all that was in the glass.

“Uh, hey,” he greeted them awkwardly, and three sets of eyes turned to look at him.

“Um, congrats, Karen, on the kid. It will be a bit hard, but kids are pretty great. And, uh, if you need any advice-”

Karen cut him off, “what do you know about raising a baby? Svetlana did all the work.”

Lip pressed his face into his hands, “fucking hell, Karen.”

She turned indigent eyes to him, “what? Am I wrong? Men always think they know what you’re going through but they only have to parent when they want to.”

“Karen,” Chody spoke up from the pool table, “he’s only trying to be nice.”

“Men are always trying to be nice,” she scoffs, then struggles up off the couch, throwing off Lip’s hands that tried to help her, “both of you can fuck off for the night, find somewhere else to sleep. I’m locking the doors.” She stomps out, pausing next to Mickey, grabbing his arm, and pulling him along next to her, through the crowds and out the door, stopping only briefly to grab their winter jackets.

Just outside the bar, Karen stopped and heaved a sigh. Now Mickey actually got a good look at her; she was very pregnant, maybe 7 months? Her movements were heavy, she seemed to have adjusted to her new centre of gravity, but at the same time, she moved like she thought she still had her smaller body, she’d bumped into many people in their path to the door, getting frustrated each time.

He felt for her, he really did, but they weren’t close, he just came to offer empty platitudes to be polite, he had no idea why she pulled him with her.

She turned to him, her pale skin glowing in the street lights, and she was beautiful, she always has been, but she definitely has the pregnancy glow about her.

“When are you taking him back?” She asks, completely worn out by the look of it.

“Who, Lip?” He asks, dumbly.

She scowls at him, “of course, dumbass.”

Mickey shrugs, “well, I’m dating Ian now, so probably never.”

She crosses her arms and shakes her head. “So what? You can date two people at once.”

“I mean, yeah, if you want. But I don’t really want to date anyone other than Ian, especially not his older brother that I broke it off with months ago.”

She throws her hands up in frustration. “Him and Chody, they are both always around! Constantly. I never get a second to myself unless I’m in the bathroom, and even then Chody has tried to come in a few times. I just want to go back to the city but I can’t because of this parasite! It might not even be theirs but both of them want it! They can have it! I just want to be left alone!”

Mickey was unprepared for the torrent of emotions he just felt from her. He wasn’t incorrect when he thought that she would never be satisfied with just Lip, she would never be satisfied with just one person ever. It just wasn’t who she was, just like how small town living wasn’t for her either and she only came back to see her mother. Lip was a good time to have while she was here, but then when she left, she did not give him another thought. It may be cruel, but that is just how she lives her life.

“Why can’t you leave? The bus to the city runs pretty regularly.”

She rubs her forehead, “It is a risky pregnancy, and I’m not dying because of this thing. Besides, mum is going to raise it, so I have to stick around until it comes out to give it to her.”

She looks at him again, her big brown eyes going soft. “I always liked you Mickey, you’re nice to mum, you help her as much as you can. You keep Lip occupied when I leave, if you were straight, I definitely would have fucked you.”

“Ew.”

She laughs, it sounds like the first laugh she’s had in a while, “yeah, I know. But everything has been really hard lately, and it was all so easy before. I think I just needed someone to complain to who won’t tell me to be more grateful for what I have, and that I have two guys chasing after me, wanting to claim a baby that might not even be theirs.”

The door to the bar opens and a tipsy Sheila carefully walks down the steps, her cheeks rosy from just the right amount of alcohol. She’d had a good day today, she had been able to enjoy the festival with her friends without the crushing anxiety of being out of the house stopping her. “Karen, sweetie. I think it’s time for me to go home. Do you want to come with me?” 

Karen gave her mum a gentle smile, and held out her arm so they could link together. “Sure mum.” She turned to him, “thanks for listening, Mickey.”

Sheila turned to him as well, “have a lovely night, Mickey. Thank you for the gift and congratulations on your relationship with Ian, he is a beautiful boy, and I’m sure you will make each other very happy.”

Mickey blushed at them both, “Thank you.” And he saw them off with a wave.

He turned to head back into the bar when it opened again and Ian stepped outside. “I was wondering where you got to.”

Mickey rubbed the back of his head, “yeah, apparently Karen had some things to get off her chest.”

Ian comes down the stairs to stand next to him. “All good?”

“Nothing about me at least. She wanted me to take Lip back so he would leave her alone for a little while.”

Ian frowns, “and what did you say?”

Mickey looked thoughtful, “I told her I would after I build a bed big enough for him to join us.” He punched Ian in the arm lightly, “of course I told her no. What did you think I would say?”

Ian laughs, “I’m sorry, I’m a bit of a possessive guy.” He throws his arm around his shorter boyfriend, “and you’re mine, I’m not sharing.”

Mickey snuggled into his side. “Good, me neither.”

“Good.” Ian kissed the side of his head, “wanna head back to mine?”

Mickey looked up at him, “mine’s way closer, let’s just go there.”

Ian already started leading them over to the farm. “Yeah, but your present is over at my place, so we have to go there.”

Mickey shrugs, “alright fine. Is the extension finished?”

Ian laughs, “I guess you’ll see when you get there.”

The extension was finished. It looked great. From the outside you could see that a second story had been added and at least one other room had been added to the bottom level. There wasn’t much time to look though, Ian was rushing them in to get out of the cold, thankfully the fire was burning away, the temperature inside was very pleasant indeed.

They hung up their coats and before Mickey had too long to admire the large kitchen that could actually be used, he turned to see Ian down on one knee, and then he felt his brain short circuit.

“Mickey…” He started.

“No.” Mickey said, shaking his head.

“No?” Ian tilted his head, “you haven’t even heard what I was going to say and you’re already saying no?”

“Ian,” Mickey put his hands on Ian’s shoulders, “are you sure? We- we’ve only been dating for a short while. You’ve only been here for a year, what if you want to go back to the city? I can’t come with you, my whole life is here.”

“Mickey-”

“What if you go back to the city to visit and you find someone you like better? You can’t tie yourself to some dumb hick in a country town who has no experience anywhere else. There is so much more available for you out there, you can’t.”

Ian stands up and embraces him, “alright Mickey, alright.” And he held him for several moments until they could both feel Mickey’s heartbeat slow down.

When they let go, Mickey looks away, embarrassed, desperately hoping he didn’t just ruin everything.

“When I first saw you, I knew I liked you,” Ian starts his speech, he’d had it all prepared after all and it’d be a shame to let it go to waste. “We didn’t actually talk until we met on the beach, but I first saw you smoking outside your shop. You were lounging there without a care in the world, you looked so fucking sexy that I thought for sure that you were posing on purpose for me, but I don’t think you even saw me looking from across the river.”

Mickey shook his head, “no, I didn’t notice.”

“I didn’t know how to approach you, I didn’t know if this town would be some backwards hole and you would punch me in the face for flirting with you, so I didn’t do anything until we finally met on the beach.”

Mickey laughs, “I couldn’t keep my eyes off you.”

Ian laughs as well, “I know! Definitely a good sign that you’d be open for a bit more.” His face turned somber, “then I screwed it up with your kid, then when we started to recover from that, I screwed it up even more. I can never apologise enough for that, and I have a feeling it will take me a long time to learn just how deeply it hurt you.” Mickey nods at this.

“These past few months with you have been so good, so fun, so full of love. When I found the mermaid’s pendant on the beach one day a little while ago, and Fi told me what it meant, I almost ran right over to your place to propose right then and there. I guess it was a good idea to wait.”

“I’m sorry,” Mickey apologises.

“Don’t be sorry, you are right. We only officially told our families today, it’d be pretty crazy to announce tomorrow that we’re suddenly engaged.” Ian said ruefully.

Mickey rubs the back of his head, “I’m sorry I ruined your present, if you show me your new bedroom, I can definitely make it up to you.”

“Absolutely. And maybe, you can help me clear out some drawers to fit some of your clothes in. And pick a nice colour for the walls.”

Mickey looks at him, “you want me to move in?”  
Ian laughs, “yeah, that was sort’ve going to go hand in hand with the whole engagement thing. And since we’ve already practically been living together for a little while, it’s not too big a jump.”

And Mickey, heart full of love, joy and holiday cheer, grabs the back of Ians neck to pull him into a deep kiss, which was as good an answer as any for them. Then they headed for the bedroom.

Months later, well into the next year, on the pier as the sea glowed at night with the lights coming off the illuminated jellyfish, Ian proposed again. And Mickey said yes.

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All done! Thanks for coming along with me on this adventure, who knows what will come next? And how many years it will take to come!


End file.
